Incontinence is a condition in which there is an uncontrolled release of discharges or evacuations. Urinary incontinence refers to loss of bladder control resulting in involuntary or uncontrolled urination. Other forms of incontinence include faecal or bowel incontinence.
Treatment options for incontinence can include behaviour management, medication and surgery. In circumstances where treatment is not available or unsuccessful, the only option is to address the incontinence events themselves. Such methods include the incontinent individual wearing an absorbent pad, diaper or nappy.
Most incontinent individuals are elderly or suffer from some form of disability or cognitive impairment. Accordingly, a significant proportion of incontinent individuals reside in care institutions such as nursing homes, aged care facilities and geriatric institutions as well as hospitals. Many of these individuals suffer from incontinence events on a regular basis. Additionally, infants and toddlers are incontinent individuals who, although they typically do not reside in care institutions, may benefit from the present invention.
To comply with care regulations and protocols it is necessary for staff to conduct manual checks of incontinent individuals on a regular basis. These manual checks are typically carried out irrespective of whether the individual has actually suffered an incontinence event. Often, the individual is unwilling or unable to cooperate and/or alert staff of the fact that an incontinence event has occurred. As can be appreciated, the need to conduct regular checks of individuals for the occurrence of an incontinence event places a significant burden on the resources of care institutions and also causes interruption to the individual's day to day activities, including their rest and sleep.
Incontinence indicators and detection systems exist. However, generally these are unable to distinguish e.g. a urinary incontinence event from a faecal incontinence event. Furthermore, existing incontinence detection systems are typically unable to detect or provide useful information about individual events such as the volume of a particular event. Most often, existing incontinence detection systems merely alert carers to the occurrence of an event so that the carer may then attend to changing of the pad or diaper. However, often times the incontinence event may not be significant enough to warrant changing of the diaper. Accordingly, the alerting system may lead to loss of time and/or resources.
Attempts to refine existing systems or to develop new systems which provide improved and/or enhanced wetness event detection have been frustrated by difficulties in sensor signal processing, producing erroneous and often useless results. As a result, such systems have failed once deployed in actual care scenarios and carers revert to the traditional methods of manual checking. The present invention seeks to ameliorate or improve upon signal processing that may be used to provide improved wetness detection systems, particularly as may be applied in monitoring individuals who experience the condition of incontinence.
The discussion of the background to the invention included herein including reference to documents, acts, materials, devices, articles and the like is intended to explain the context of the present invention. This is not to be taken as an admission or a suggestion that any of the material referred to was published, known or part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of any of the claims.